A reminder of the persistence of traditional dwelling forms, this brick I-house was built ca. 1840 for George Earhart’s residence on his 537-acre farm on the North Fork of the Roanoke River in Montgomery County. The I-house was popular among the more temperate and frugal farming families of the antebellum period. Its attractive simplicity was not based on economic necessity but on doctrines that held no place for stylistic trappings. Here, the chief embellishments are the molded brick cornices which were originally developed as fireproof alternatives to wooden cornices but became a regional decorative motif. Although the I-house was a widely popular form, only a handful of brick examples remain in the county. George Earhart lived here until his death in 1880. From the late 1880s to 1902, it was used by Montgomery County as a “Poor-House Farm.” The property, also known as Arrington House or the Miller House, is again in private ownership.

The George Earhart House was listed in the registers under the Prehistoric and Historic Resources of Montgomery County MPD.